Friday, January 27, 2012

Do You Use Dryer Sheets to Clean Your Shower Doors??

I saw this idea on a blog and thought, "Yeah, maybe your shower doors, but my water is beyond hard. No way that will work for me." I usually have to use cleaners that require rubber gloves, bleach the color out of any clothes or towels within splatter-shot, and smell as though one should be advised to wear a gas mask and have the windows open. I was desperate enough to give this dryer sheet thing a try. On my first attempt I didn't even bother to take before pictures. I was that sure it would not work. It worked.

I took pics the second time I used them. Here's the before:

And after:

Oh, no, that is not with the shower door open.

Look at this shine:

This is what that area looked like before:

I have a certain amount of guilt because of the disposable factor with the the dryer sheets. I try not to use things that are disposable if I can avoid it. I don't use dryer sheet for the laundry! I had to "borrow" some of them from Melissa for my first try. However, those strong chemicals can't be good for the environment either. Another great reason to use the dryer sheets is that I don't have to worry about the strong cleansers corroding the caulk around the tub and the metal fixtures as the labels threaten will happen. Avoiding leaks from worn caulk and extending the life of the fixtures is good for the environment, too.

The sheets work great on the sink and tub area easily cleaning off the tub ring, too. One sheet goes a long way. Melissa's were Bounce. I bought Target's brand which worked just as well.

While I still don't like cleaning the bathrooms, I don't dread cleaning them anymore. Try the dryer sheets if you haven't already.

5 comments:

I used new ones, but I have to say that they seem to work better on the tub and sink when most of the "stuff" was washed out. By that point there was almost no residue when the surface dried, so no special rinsing was needed. I haven't tried used ones on the shower doors, but did dry one and reuse it on the tub. There wasn't a whole lot of scum on the tub. The texture of the material seems to be enough for that job. I'll have to experiment with used ones. Since everyone else in the family appears to be allergic to housework, I'll have lots of opportunities:-}

Thank you, Anonymous! I did check it out. I'm pretty good at analyzing research studies having spent a good part of my master's classes a few years ago learning to do just that. Of the studies available online, research is based on an exceptionally small amount of data. There are, indeed, chemicals in dryer sheets that can be toxic at high levels. However, the levels shown in the research are exceptionally low--not even close to problematic.